


Old Man DiNozzo

by briwd



Category: NCIS
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 15:32:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11992656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/briwd/pseuds/briwd
Summary: Written for the 2017 WEE challenge on NFA. Nearly twenty years after the end of a war that Balkanized his country, a long-retired agent living with one eye over his shoulder is abducted. If he doesn't speak out, then the entire world will descend into hell.





	1. Chapter 1

**Part One**

 

**2042**

**Louisville, Kentucky**

**Reformed United States of America**

 

His name for the past eight years had been Conrad Loughlin.

 

Before he became Conrad Loughlin, the old man had many names. George LaDuca. Sean Manning. Melvin Franks. Anthony Romero. Leroy Tarantino. Timothy Nickelsen. Donald Scuito. James Dalton. And a bunch he'd used for mere days that he'd all but forgotten about.

 

And before that, when there was one United States, he was someone else. Within the span of his first half-century, the old man had lived an incredible life.

 

Then everything went to hell.

 

The past 20 years for him had been, at best, an extended purgatory, living for years on the inheritance from his father and then on the kindness of others, always looking over his shoulder.

 

More than anything else, the old man was simply tired, of the paranoia that the government will come for him and the ache from the absence of the family and friends he'd come to care deeply about. Of the daughter taken from him nearly two decades ago, and of her mother who he'd lost long before that.

 

There was no movie quote he could pull out of his brain to speak to his current situation, nothing to give him comfort or hope, or even a laugh. Just the ever-present threat of Them, and the bleak, depressing walls of his economy apartment in the Golden Years Centre at Middlebrook.

 

The apartment had three rooms: a bedroom, a bath and a combination living room/kitchenette, which had several windows overlooking a large fountain in the middle of a nearby lake. The blinds were still closed as not to allow in the sun. The thermostat was at 79 degrees Fahrenheit, but he had been under a blanket; even if the heat rose upwards from the lower two floors, he still got the chills now and then, a little more often each year.

 

Loughlin tossed his comforter to the floor and got up from his recliner, fixed himself a cup of coffee, and sat back down in the recliner. He took the monitor's remote control and began to flip through the free- and basic-tier channels.

 

"If all you did was watch TV, you'd think things hadn't changed a bit in 25 years," he muttered. "Suppose that happens when you fight the Second Civil War and everybody loses."

 

The old man continued going through the list of video and audio channels, pausing at each one to see if the programming piqued his interest. Each time, he groaned.

 

_\--This is AT 2. It's 10 o'clock in the East, 9 o'clock in the West. This program is being rebroadcast from the previous evening. For the latest news and commentary, turn now to AT News on channel nine._

_Tonight on Line of Fire:_

_On the Left: Kentucky Senator David Brashear. On the Right: South Carolina Representative Jed Jones IV. The Issue: Border patrols from Roanoke to the Ozarks. Next--_

 

 

"Do they ever get tired of yelling over each other?" Loughlin grumbled.

 

_\--CASH! NOW! DOT! C! O! DOT! R! U! S! A!_

_loanamountbasedonannualsalaryandcurrentcriminalrecordatafixedrateofeighteenpointsevenpercentforthefirsttwelvemonthsinterestrateincreasestotwentyfourpointfourpercentifnotpaidoffwithintwelvemonthperiodapplicantswithnocriminalhistoryforthepastsixtymonthsqualifyforloansatsevenpercentforsevenmonthperiod--_

 

 

"I thought usury was a sin!" Loughlin half-shouted at the screen. He didn't have to worry about going to one of those loan sharks, not with a deceased friend's estate taking care of his room and board and basic senior income covering his other needs and wants -- as long as Nashville didn't catch on to him.

 

Looking for something to watch, he stopped on Novosti America, the top-rated news channel in the ten Reformed American states. It favored a straight-forward approach to the news over AT, Regent and GNN's debate-style programming. Reading between the lines, he thought he'd get a decent idea of what was going on in the world.

 

_\--Ahead of Russian Premier Ustinov's visit to the Log House, Army units are assisting Nashville police in clearing city streets of protestors and malcontents. While Premier Ustinov and President Woods discuss expansion of the International Space Station, in the Capitol Building, Congressmen from all three sides of the political spectrum will debate proposed changes to the healthcare bill now in the Senate._

_Overnight, River Guard patrolmen caught 14 citizens attempting to illegally cross the Ohio River from Newport, Kentucky into the Philadelphia state of Ohio. Downriver, Kentucky State Police shot three criminals near the town of Cloverport before they could swim to Canadian Indiana._

_Less than three hours ago, an earthquake registering 5.1 on the Richter scale occurred in the California Republic, the epicenter in the city of San Bernardino in the nation's southern region._

_Nine Colombian soldiers were killed in an attack by Islamist terrorists within the past hour in the South Sudanese capital of Juba. This brings the total number of Allied military personnel killed in the Sudanese War this year to 59._

_On a brighter note, a Gallup poll indicates an increase of 3.5 percent in regular church attendance within the past 12 months. In sports, the Tampa Bay Rays play the Atlanta Crackers for first place in baseball's Eastern Division, both teams having the best records in all of major league baseball._

_Sources tell American Press that federal government issues with the teaching of evolution at Vanderbilt University will not keep the school out of the Southeastern Conference this coming season._

_Amish Romance was the highest-rated video program of the summer season's most recent week, drawing over four million live viewers and 3.7 million in the plus-seven period. Pastor's Wives of Atlanta was second, the NASCAR race in Caracas was third, Army CID: Fort Knox fourth and Repairing Lives fifth._

_And now to Nashville, where the Russian Command Plane One carrying Premier Anatoly Ustinov is scheduled to land within the hour at Joint Base Hermitage--_

 

 

Game shows. Cartoons. Chinese and Russian language lessons. Reruns of baseball and soccer matches. Screaming sessions that posed as news. Preachers and theologians. Soccer moms and grandmas. Actors and athletes. Astronauts, because of the joint Russian-Indian-RUSA mission to the moon, never mind the Chinese put somebody on Mars four years ago.

 

There was nothing to watch, even on the movie channels. That forced him to think about going outside his apartment. Right now, according to the daily schedule, he could learn about botany, or go to his assigned seat in the dining area and wait for lunch.

 

Loughlin wanted to go back to bed, despite knowing that shuffling around would be much better for his health. His doctor had told him five times that sitting was bad for his artificial hip; each time it ached, he sat back down, convinced he who knew his own body and had to live with the pain and aggravation knew best.

 

If he could get the aides on board, he'd have it made.

 

He heard a knock on his door, and groaned. Where was his cane again? Five beeps later, a heavy-set, fifty-year-old African-American woman walked in. "Mister Loughlin, look at you! You sit in that chair waaay too much, and you know it!", she exclaimed with a grin.

 

Her name was Loretta, and she was the aide who checked in on Loughlin during the week. The wide grin on her face reflected her always upbeat and positive attitude, contrasting with his general irritation and it's-not-pessimism-Loretta-it's-being-realistic demeanor. A lifetime ago he wasn't that way; he cracked jokes, flirted shamelessly with countless women, and often acted immaturely.

 

And he was always a gentleman to the ladies, until he found himself having lost everything and having to do anything to survive. The gentleman died long ago, but he still knew enough to do his best to be polite.

 

"Come on, Loretta. I need my rest. My hip's hurting me," he said non-convincingly.

 

She walked over to the bookshelf next to the monitor and took the cane resting against its side, and walked over to his recliner. She put the cane at his foot, put her hands on her hips, and gave him The Look.

 

It wasn't a glare that ever intimidated him, rather it was a signal to him that it was time to concede. "You're right, Loretta," he said, making sure to exaggerate his groan as he got up from the recliner. "There's nothing on TV right now anyway. Where are we going?"

 

She stepped back to give him room, watching him to make sure he grabbed the cane. "Out for a walk, Mr. Loughlin, what else?" she replied, unperturbed by the older man's demeanor.

 

He mentally rebuked himself for his crankiness; he was a better man than that, regardless of whatever had happened to him. Loughlin apologized, and she told him it was alright. He then took his cane and followed her out the door, listening to her tell a story as they walked down the hallway to the elevator, then to the nurse's station for a quick application of sunscreen, and finally through the lobby outside to one of the adjacent front porches.

 

That was the first part of a routine they had shared for the past couple of years, either before or after lunch. After sitting for a bit, they'd walk along the sidewalk that began and ended at the front entrance and crossed both sides of the parking lot and the facility's vast lawn that ran parallel to one of the city's busiest highways, Shelbyville Road.

 

Sometimes, if Loughlin's hip was up to it, he and Loretta would walk to the convenience store near the facility. They'd split a submarine sandwich and eat there. Usually, they settled for watching the store's customers drive in and out.

 

"Price of hydrogen fuel went up," he said, squinting into the smartbifocals he had taken out of his shirt pocket. The glasses were near-ancient by Russian technological standards, but were sturdy and reliable and did the one thing that Loughlin mainly wanted them to: allow him to see clearly.

 

The glasses' telescopic software often came in useful, however, and allowed him to watch the goings-on at the nearby BystryyMart without moving from his rocking chair.

 

"$24 for a single charge. Nice to see our Russian friends helping keep America great."

 

"Speak for yourself, sugar," Loretta replied. "I'm still driving on gas. '30 Cowboy."

 

"One of the first cars built in the...built here, after everything settled down. Again, thanks to our Russian 'friends'."

 

"Guess how much I paid this morning."

 

"Fifty."

 

"Seventy-four even," she said. "Ten gallons exactly. Honey, gas ain't been five dollars a gallon since the last election."

 

"Haven't been for a drive in a long time," he said as he watched the Russian- and Indian-made SUVs and sports cars and trucks enter and leave the fuel station. "Sign over there always shows the price of hydrogen."

 

"Most people nowadays who can afford a decent car buy hydrogen or electric. Folks like me? If we drive something we own or payin' on, it runs on gas. I only make 45,000 a year."

 

"You're doing alright, though...aren't you?"

 

"Yes," she said. "I'm gettin' by. I'd love to retire, live on the beach. Gotta have money to do that. Good job, lots of savings, know the right folks. My two daughters help me out, though they got kids to feed and clothe themselves. I'm blessed, though. God keeps meeting all my needs."

 

Yeah, he thought. God. God must be doing a lot for a lot of people, because the government keeps taking things away from them. Me? God forgot me long ago...that, or I should've sided with the Baptists. Hell. Maybe I'd be in my own house by now.

 

They bantered some more, Loughlin loosing up a little more by the minute. Walking with Loretta on his left side, and using his cane with his right hand, he realized that he felt better moving around and being outside. Neither of them were bothered by the 85-degree Fahrenheit, 72 percent humid, hazy morning. Nowadays, that was as nice as it got for a sunny late morning in July.

 

"I don't even feel the sunscreen melting down my cheeks," Loughlin said as he and Loretta walked along the sidewalk towards the Shelbyville Road entrance/exit. "I guess this is as good as it's gonna get for me."

 

"I like your attitude," Loretta said with a grin. "Now I know how to keep you from getting grouchy. Make sure it's a nice day."

 

"And how are you gonna do that when the weather people can't even get it right?" he said with a chuckle. "Ah, Loretta. I got the basics: food, clothing, shelter, a couple of good classic movie channels the government has the sense not to screw around with. Those Jack London novels in the library. Sometimes they get the coffee right, too. That's all you can ask for, right?"

 

"Well," she said, "there is something more than that--"

 

Loretta stopped, stepping instinctively in front of Loughlin, her past career as a jail guard kicking in.

 

"What--" Loughlin said, before being cut off by Loretta's shush. She nodded towards a strange looking WeHaul van that had slowed down greatly about 30 feet from the facility's entrance, going 25 miles below the speed limit on Shelbyville.

 

She reached in her pants pocket, didn't find the phone she was looking for, and cursed. "I don't like the looks of that van," she told him, grabbing a bottle of pepper spray from her other pocket. "We're going back."

 

He didn't argue her point. His gut screamed at him that after all these years he had finally been made.

 

Ignoring the sudden pain in his hip and knee, Loughlin took off in a slow jog. Loretta kept herself between him and the grey/orange van that had turned into the facility and, 80 yards from the security of the lobby, was now parallel to them.

 

The van sped up, stopping 15 yards ahead; the back door suddenly opened, and three men dressed head-to-toe in black jumped out and ran straight towards them.

 

Loretta pressed the button on the canister, hoping to catch two of the attackers in a cloud of pepper spray so she could delay the third long enough for the older man to get to safety. Her hopes were shattered when nothing came out of the canister; before she could push the button a second time, she was tased by an attacker.

 

The other two attackers were on Loughlin within seconds. He turned his head to his right and saw one attacker jam a syringe into his arm. Within moments he felt himself fall forward and being grabbed by his armpits.

 

Then, everything went to black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

 

In the dream, he was young again.

 

There were none of the aches and pains of old age, none of the tiredness that it bought those whose years were destined to be many.

 

He had all the strength and vigor that came with youth. He ran, and ran, and ran through fields of green and gold, with tall, majestic trees with a rainbow of leaves in the distance and a dazzling sun high above him. The temperature wasn't hot, nor cold, nor humid, but just right, and there wasn't a cloud in the beautiful blue sky.

 

Overjoyed, he called for his friends and loved ones.

 

They didn't answer. They never answered.

 

Then he called for acquaintances, strangers, enemies.

 

They never answered, either.

 

He ran, thinking someone must be around, but the trees in the distance never got closer. Eventually he would give up, besides himself, and finally would scream to the Almighty to show Himself.

 

Despite his pleas, God never showed Himself, at least in any way that the dreamer could discern.

 

The dreamer looked around at his immediate surroundings, at the weeds quickly growing around him, then enveloping him, then choking him. Gasping for breath, he looked up and saw dark clouds speeding through the sky and blotting out the sun. Suddenly, he felt the air around him turn colder by the second, and he also sensed something far more chilling:

 

The absence of God, and the absence of those who loved him, knew him, met him, hated him.

 

Was this hell?

 

_\--The Reformed United States of America is the continuation of the nation founded by the original Founding Fathers more than two and a half centuries ago._

_Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico, and encompassing the Appalachian, Blue Ridge and Ozark mountain ranges; the bluegrass of Kentucky; the orange groves of Florida; the mountains of North Carolina; and the forests of Mississippi, the RUSA encompasses a wide variety of natural wonders._

_The RUSA also is home to over 30 million men, women and children of many nationalities and faiths, all enjoying their inalienable rights of life, liberty and happiness. Our crime rate is the lowest among North American countries, and our standard of living is among the highest._

_While living in the RUSA isn't for everyone, if you're a hard-working, peaceful, law-abiding person who wants to be free to be whatever your Creator made you to be, then perhaps the RUSA is just the right place for you to live.--_

 

 

**Kentucky, RUSA**

**Interstate 65, quickly approaching the Tennessee state border**

 

Loughlin shot up, his recurring nightmare still fresh on his mind.

 

Instead of waking up in his bed or his recliner, he woke up in the back of a van.

 

Years of training from a previous life kicked in as he took in his surroundings. He was on a cot in the back of the van which was moving rather quickly; the speed, and the noise from traffic outside the van, suggested the van was on a highway. The only light came from up front; it was a sunny day, and the two people in the driver's and passenger seat were in the best position to see it.

 

So, there were three people in the van, including himself.

 

Three people jumped out towards him back at the senior center. So where was the third...and what about Loretta?

 

"Are you all right, Mr. Loughlin?" he heard someone say two feet to his right. He squinted, barely making out the outline of another man. The third man from the center.

 

"Or should I correct myself: Mr. DiNozzo."

 

I've been made, he thought after moments of shocked silence. Who the hell are these people.

 

"You...you...who are you?" he groaned.

 

The man in the passenger seat turned his head towards the back. "Hello, Mr. DiNozzo!" he cheerfully said. "We're about to enter Tennessee."

 

The driver abruptly reached over and swatted Passenger Guy in the back of the head. It triggered an old memory in the mind of the man known years ago as Tony DiNozzo, and the elder man felt the corner of his eye tear up.

 

Then he brought himself back to the present. "Tenn-- Where? Where are we? Are we in Louisville? Kentucky?"

 

"Forgive our manners," said the third man, sitting on a crate in front of DiNozzo, himself now sitting on the side of his cot. "I am Levi."

 

"Lee...vi. Okay." DiNozzo looked towards the front. "What about Loretta? If you killed her--"

 

Levi put his hands up. "She is fine, Mr. DiNozzo. She was tased rather mildly, just enough to render her unconscious, and the facility's security detail made certain not to leave her out in the heat for very long."

 

"Good," DiNozzo growled.

 

"Unfortunately, it was necessary. As are many unpleasantries."

 

"Who in hell are you people?"

 

"You arrive at the point, no?"

 

"You mean 'get to the point'."

 

"Forgive me. I'm still unaccustomed to your American idioms...but your 'point' stands. Forgive my rudeness. I am Levi--"

 

"--and that's Larry and Shemp up front," DiNozzo growled. "I meant who in the hell are you people? Are you with the government? Have you finally found me?"

 

Passenger Guy looked back over his shoulder. "'The Three Stooges'! I loved that movie! Was it not based on a century-old comedy trio--OWWWW!" The driver, DiNozzo judged, was unamused, and not the man in charge. He turned to the man he guessed was in charge, waiting for him to answer his questions.

 

"Very well," Levi said. "First, we are not with the RUSA government, nor with any of the other governments on this continent. As to your second question--"

 

"Underground?" DiNozzo asked; Levi shook his head. "CIA from Philly?"

 

"We are not agents from the Philadelphia or Cheyenne governments, nor the other countries on the continent. We are a long-time ally, perhaps the only true ally America has left."

 

DiNozzo pondered Levi's statement, and the answer quickly dawned on him.

 

"Israel...are you Mossad?"

 

Levi nodded. "Officer Levi Timor, indeed of Mossad." He gestured towards the front. "The other two gentlemen here are Mossad as well. The driver is Dagan, the passenger is Lemuel." Lemuel waved hello, while Dagan kept his eyes on the road. "As to your second question, Mr. DiNozzo, Mossad has kept track of you for a long time."

 

"Really," DiNozzo said. "What do you want with me?"

 

"Mossad has need of your services."

 

"What does Mossad want with me?"

 

"I cannot tell you yet, but soon," Levi answered. "You seem curious about our interest in you--"

 

"You did say you were 'keeping track of me'."

 

"This is true. We made certain that your father's financial holdings were protected during your country's most recent Civil War. While some of your benefactors were good Samaritans, most were working on our behalf."

 

"If you're Mossad...where is my daughter? Tali? Where is she...where did they bury her?"

 

The words came out with more bite than he intended, but the events from two decades before were as painful now as they were then. The last time he saw his only daughter was as a child not even 10 years old.

 

DiNozzo and Tali were in Washington visiting old friends when the Second Civil War began. Over a two-month span, DiNozzo watched friend after friend die, taking Tali from place to place just to stay alive. It was by chance that he was in the back of the bar, where he eavesdropped on the conspirators who split the nation. It was by design that his mentor, his second father, sacrificed his life so DiNozzo and Tali could survive.

 

It was intentional on the part of his pursuers that DiNozzo got away from the KOA campground ahead of the explosion that killed hundreds of frightened civilians...and his beloved Tali.

 

He never saw her body. He had only the word of a Mossad agent he had just met that she would be not be left behind 'to rot'. That agent's word was all DiNozzo had to go on when a small jet carrying a 50-megaton nuclear bomb slipped through the air defenses around Washington, exploding over the Capitol building.

 

While the civil war continued and millions died, DiNozzo went undercover. Friends died in the flames of Baltimore, more friends in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Soon, he found himself alone, always looking over his shoulder. If the conspirators who helped found the Reformed United States knew DiNozzo was alive, they'd stop at nothing to kill him.

 

As the van he and the Mossad officers rode in crossed the Kentucky state border into Tennessee, DiNozzo had one question: If they were Mossad, why were they surfacing now? And that's exactly what he asked Levi.

 

"My superiors thought it was time to bring you out from your deep undercover status," Levi explained. "There are things that have been in motion for many years, all of which are converging. Do you know the global situation?"

 

DiNozzo nodded. He thought he did, as the RUSA media almost always reported what was going on outside its borders, even with the government-friendly spin.

 

"The Reformed United States is beginning to threaten its neighbors," Levi said. "The border patrols, the nuclear missiles, are meant for invasion and attack, primarily against the Canadians and Texans and the Cheyenne government. Its Southern Command is poised to retake southern Florida and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands--"

 

"Come on," DiNozzo interjected. "The RUSA isn't that powerful. And wouldn't the Russians step in?"

 

"Moscow has its own problems, Mr. DiNozzo. Moscow overextended itself by reannexing the Ukraine and the Baltic nations. Putin's death also gave the Nashville regime the nerve to begin pursuing its own interests independently of Mother Russia. The last ten years have seen the RUSA military approach the strength level of the old United States. Then there are its substantial nuclear reserves."

 

"I thought most of America's nukes were dismantled."

 

"A lie. Some were dismantled, yes. Some were taken by Russia, Britain, China and France. The rest were split among the new American republics, all of whom have added to their arsenals."

 

"So the RUSA is about to go rogue. I guess the neighbors know what ol' Dixie's up to?"

 

Levi chuckled. "Yes, Mr. DiNozzo. The other nations are arming themselves even now. Canada, both American governments, Texas, the Caribbean Federation, even California and Utah. And I am sure you know what that would lead to."

 

"A third civil war."

 

"No. Remember how the assassination of the Archduke of Austria led to the first World War? The treaties between the North American nations and their partners across the world would quickly draw the entire globe into conflict, not just here but on every other continent. And nuclear weapons would be used."

 

DiNozzo let out a long whistle. "When the nukes fly, we all fry."

 

"Crude, but correct."

 

The van took an exit off the interstate. DiNozzo started to rise off the cot to get a better look out front, but his hip started acting up. He groaned in pain and fell backwards, and Levi grabbed him before he could hit the inside wall of the van. Levi then gave DiNozzo a couple of pain pills and a bottle of water, all which the older man gratefully accepted.

 

Twenty minutes later, the pain in his hip having subsided, DiNozzo looked towards the front. He saw only trees from his vantage point on the cot. "You're taking the scenic route?" he asked Levi.

 

"A necessary route. We have a quick mission to carry out before our eventual destination."

 

The Gorky's Pizza van pulled off near the interstate along a back road. After helping DiNozzo out of the van, Levi and his colleagues began unloading some of the boxes inside.

 

Keeping one eye on the Israelis, DiNozzo took in his surroundings. It appeared they were on or behind an abandoned farm. The remains of houses, barns and fences stood amongst waist-high weeds. High above, ancient metal towers carried power lines stretching east and west and over the interstate.

 

DiNozzo looked back at the Israelis and saw each of them were armed. Levi and Lemuel had subautomatic weapons in hand, pistols at their waists and backup pistols in their boots -- how had he not noticed that before? -- while Dagan climbed a nearby tree. DiNozzo took a closer look at the broad-shouldered, fortyish-year-old man, and saw the rifle along his back. He then felt a tap on his shoulder.

 

"For your protection," Levi said, as he held out a pistol. DiNozzo eyed the gun warily, then took it.

 

"You sure you trust me with this?"

 

"Of course. We are friends and allies, not enemies. But what is your 'gut' telling you?"

 

 _Gut_. DiNozzo cringed. He hadn't heard that term in years.

 

"That you're not FBI, CIA or FSB. Of course, I'm pretty damn old. My 'gut' might not work like it used to."

 

"Somehow, I doubt that," Levi said with a laugh. "From what I have been told about you, your instincts are the least of my concerns."

 

"Thanks?" DiNozzo said as he made sure the safety on his pistol was on. "What's Shemp doing up there? Shooting pigeons?"

 

Levi ignored him, pulling out an old-style satellite phone to place a call, out of DiNozzo's earshot. "He does that a lot," Lemuel said from behind DiNozzo, startling the American and causing him to utter a couple of expletives.

 

"Sorry. Levi and Dagan keep telling me not to do that," said the tall, curly-haired slim man. "My social skills could use some work."

 

"I had the safety on, so it's all good," DiNozzo said. "Feel free to come up directly to me. Just us here, out in the woods, somewhere in a part of Tennessee I've never been."

 

"It's beautiful, and I for one hope it stays that way," Lemuel said. "Did you know that it has been 97 years since the end of the last world war?"

 

"1945...2042...yeah, I guess it is 97 years."

 

"Did you know that, according to Star Trek, the third world war is supposed to begin 11 years from now?"

 

"And there's that," DiNozzo muttered.

 

Levi walked back up to Lemuel and DiNozzo, and the two Israelis walked away, again out of DiNozzo's earshot, for a brief conversation. Lemuel then went south along the road to serve as a lookout, while Levi looked north.

 

DiNozzo raised his gaze upwards towards Dagan, who had settled in a nest near the top of the tree. A sniper's nest.

 

"Sixty seconds," Levi said into a communicator he had pulled out of his jacket pocket. He counted down in increments of ten seconds, ignoring DiNozzo's questions.

 

At thirty seconds, DiNozzo realized what Dagan was set up to do. Thirty seconds later, the sniper shot at his target, and DiNozzo nearly pulled the trigger on his pistol seconds later after hearing the explosion behind their position. He turned and, to his horror, saw a large fireball over the horizon.

 

Levi then went to the van, reached inside to open another crate, and reached inside the crate to activate a timer. Dagan quickly headed down the tree, while Lemuel looked around the surroundings on down the road.

 

"What in hell?" DiNozzo shouted at Dagan. "What did you do?"

 

Dagan ignored him, but Levi didn't. He grabbed DiNozzo and steered him away from the van, north along the road. DiNozzo wouldn't budge, forcing Levi to look at him. "I said. What in the hell just happened?"

 

"Our mission," Levi said. "We need to be on the move. You do not want to be here when the authorities arrive."

 

DiNozzo didn't argue, especially since the other men were better armed -- and younger -- than he. About ninety feet north, Lemuel pointed to an old truck covered up by leaves and camouflage. The four men piled into the 2012 Ford F-350 and drove away. Minutes later, the sound of the explosion in the rear distance was barely discernible. By the time Tennessee state and Robertson County police arrived on the scene, the F-350 had been ditched behind an abandoned Wal-Mart in the town of Greenbrier, and its occupants had moved into a late-model Earnhardt truck, heading south towards Nashville.

 

_\--there was little support for the old Confederate capitals of Montgomery and Richmond. Atlanta was still suffering from racial and class strife and the North Carolina state government didn't want to move out of Raleigh. So that's how Music City became Capital City.--_

 

 

The Earnhardt E-500 sped right at the 75-mile-per-hour limit as it entered the Metro Nashville/Davidson County limits, and went down to 65 mph before hitting the infamous speed zone that ensnared many an unsuspecting traveler to the RUSA capital.

 

At DiNozzo's insistence and with a nod from Levi, Lemuel scanned the local internet audio channels for news; instead, they got dozens of music stations and talk programs. Lemuel found a local news report after switching to the still-active FM band.

 

_\--Classic Country 103.7. We just heard from Debi Curtis, Garth Brooks, Maren Morris, Johnny Cash and Lady Antebellum. It's 89 right now in the Capital Music City, and it's time for a news and traffic update._

_Six people are dead after a truck hit an SUV on northbound Interstate 65 north of Greenbrier. According to a Tennessee State Police spokeswoman, the truck suddenly exploded and the SUV, carrying a couple and their three children, was unable to avoid the conflagration. --_

 

 

"YOU KILLED A FAMILY? YOU MOTHER%*#(@$! YOU SON OF A %*#(--" DiNozzo screamed into Dagan's ear. DiNozzo didn't get to finish his tirade, as Levi clamped his palm over his mouth. Lemuel looked back wide-eyed in surprise, while Dagan acted as if the American hadn't said a word.

 

"Screaming will not change things," Levi said calmly, before removing his palm from DiNozzo's mouth.

 

DiNozzo took a few breaths to gather his thoughts, then turned to Levi. "Tell me what happened back there, and tell me now. If you want my cooperation for anything, you better start talking."

 

Before Lemuel could speak, Levi shot him a look, then answered DiNozzo. "Very well. Our mission in Greenbrier was to kill the driver of a truck filled with pharmaceuticals the RUSA government uses on its dissidents."

 

"Kill? Truck...drugs...dissidents...what?"

 

"Since its formation, the RUSA government, intelligence agencies and military have used a variety of drugs on its population, primarily its dissidents, to pacify and control its people. Many of these drugs have been developed in partnership with, or directly by, its Russian and Indian partners. Our operation was one of dozens performed on a weekly basis throughout the country, all of which allow dissidents to retain their minds--"

 

"'Retain their minds'?"

 

"The drugs are brutal but efficient. They turn dissidents into docile...for lack of a better term, simpletons. They lose their ability to think, to reason. They barely know how to eat, breathe, and often have to be retrained just to cleanse and clothe themselves. Their threat to society is removed, at the cost of their individuality."

 

"Their minds are ripped from them," DiNozzo said.

 

"Correct."

 

"So why not destroy the drugs at the source? Why blow up trucks? And run the risk of killing innocent people?"

 

"It's easier to destroy the drugs on the move -- although I suspect that will quickly change -- than at the heavily-guarded factories where they are developed," Levi said. "As to the question of innocent people, the answer is one you will not like. While neither we nor our partners in the underground set out to kill innocents, the truth is that innocents do die. The difference is, neither we nor the resistance set out to kill them. The regime will, and does, all the time."


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

**Nashville**

 

_\--ABS News reporters in Nashville studio have observed dozens of people being arrested outside their bureau building by RUS Army personnel, as protests throughout that nation's capital continue into their fourth day--_

_\--U.S. Air Force Falcons flying out of Barksdale are making regular patrols now along the state border with the RUSA state of Arkansas. This comes less than 48 hours after RUS Air Force Hound Dogs briefly flew over the Louisiana border town of Ida. Ida is less than an hour north of Shreveport, where Barksdale Air Force Base is--_

_\--human rights observers list the RUSA near the bottom regarding treatment of dissidents; LGBTQ rights; and freedom of religion for adherents of non-Christian and non-Jewish faiths--_

_\--"I earned my medical degree at Vanderbilt. One night, the RFBI goons came for me because I participated in the Freedom March there in Nashville. I was sent to one of their 'rehabilitation centers' -- gulags -- and am here only through the grace of God and an angel who helped me escape over the border into Texas"--_

_\--traffic throughout Metro Nashville will be slower than usual. Drivers should be mindful of checkpoints at all major intersections and on the interstates. U.S. 70/Lebanon Pike is closed to the public from Joint Base Hermitage all the way into downtown, so drivers need to plan on alternate routes. I-40 will be heavier than normal as a result._

_In about 40 minutes all streets in the Capitol District, Jefferson to Commerce and First to Davis Boulevard will be shut down. Also, all flights in and out of Nashville International Airport will be delayed until FAA officials give the all-clear. Travelers should plan for a long stay--_

 

 

Dagan was responsible for getting his team and DiNozzo where they needed to go, and he didn't plan to waste their time in a virtual parking lot.

 

He got off Interstate 65 at Briley Parkway, which had plenty of traffic that was moving along at a steady pace, unlike the mess on I-65. "We are taking the long way into town and going the back roads," Levi explained.

 

DiNozzo had long concluded that Dagan was either mute or anti-social, but he was doing a good job behind the wheel. He was also a damned good shot, and DiNozzo didn't want to think about being on the other end of Dagan's scope.

 

Lemuel, he figured, was a little odd (constantly referencing 'ancient' television shows and movies and streaming internet programs), but came across as a decent guy.

 

Levi, in DiNozzo's judgment, ran the operation with the other men dutifully following his lead and acting in support roles. Levi also seemed to be holding something back; he glanced at DiNozzo on several occasions as if he wanted to tell him something.

 

After another one of those looks from Levi, DiNozzo figured it was as appropriate a time as any to push him on his ultimate intentions.

 

"Look, guys, I appreciate the ride," DiNozzo said as the van drove through miles and miles of trees, government installations and concrete public housing projects. "What do you want with me?"

 

"Do you not know yet?" Levi answered.

 

DiNozzo looked at him in frustration. "If I wanted a parable, pal, I'd open a New Testament. You've gone to a lot of trouble to kidnap me and take me somewhere. You're either who you say you are and you have a reason for doing all of this, or you're from the government and you're here to kill me."

 

Levi smiled. "You are as they said you were," he said; noting the frustration in DiNozzo's face, Levi decided to come clean.

 

"There is a reason we are freeing you now, and it has to do with what you know," he said. "You were there in Washington, before it was destroyed. You overheard what those men and women intended. You were part of the operation that should have thwarted their plans."

 

"Sonofabitch..." DiNozzo's voice trailed off. "After all these years...Woods. You're taking me straight to the bastard."

 

"No, but close," Levi said. "Look around you."

 

The land along Briley Parkway had been mostly rural up until the last decade; DiNozzo noticed miles of concrete and glass buildings from the I-65 exit to the Cumberland River.

 

"Some of these buildings are not listed on any maps," Levi told him. "Those are the places the government prefers not to expose to outsiders."

 

"Outsiders?" DiNozzo said.

 

"The public. Media, inside and outside the country. Other countries' intelligence agencies, even their Russian 'friends'."

 

"Because of what they're doing."

 

"Remember the truck we dispatched? Some of those drugs either came from those buildings, or were to be used there. They are just a few of the places where this nation's government takes its dissidents to eliminate them as threats."

 

"How do they define 'eliminate'?"

 

"If the drugs do not render the dissident docile and dumb, then death is the next step."

 

The rest of the ride over the river into far western Nashville was silent. Lost in thought, DiNozzo didn't notice Dagan pulling onto I-40 West.

 

"It would explain so many disappearances," he said softly to himself. "Accidents not reported in the news, obituaries not posted anywhere."

 

DiNozzo then began to think about other things he had seen in the media or heard second- and third-hand; terrorist alerts, public figures disappearing and not being mentioned again, portions of videos and music being revised or erased with no explanation. How much of what he, and the public, had been told was the truth or a lie?

 

He looked out his window and saw a string of fast-food restaurants, hotels and fuel stations rapidly passing by. The first street sign he could spot told him they were on White Bridge Pike, in front of Southern Baptist Community College.

 

"Woods was there at that bar," DiNozzo said, turning to look Levi in the eye. "Woods, the junior Congressman who became President of his own banana republic." Levi remained silent. "You're taking me to him, aren't you?"

 

"No. It is too risky, and you have a greater purpose than to confront him like in some bad movie. You have a story to tell."

 

"And what if I don't want to tell it? What if I want to be left the hell alone, left to die in peace?" DiNozzo shot back, with anger beginning to grow in his soul. "Nothing's gonna change--"

 

"It must," Levi interrupted, forcefully. "It must change."

 

"Took you long enough to get around to doing something. Long enough to grab me from a safe place, dammit! I was safe, secure--"

 

Levi grabbed the older man by his shoulders. "You are NOT safe nor secure. No one here, no one in this world is safe nor secure. The time has come to act, Mr. DiNozzo, whether you want to or not. And you must act."

 

"I'm too old to be a hero, son," he muttered.

 

Levi sighed, pulled out his communicator to open its photo app, and began scrolling through dozens of photos until he found the one he wanted to show DiNozzo. Locking it onto the screen, Levi shoved his communicator's screen right in DiNozzo's face. "She. She is your reason."

 

A sharp chill went up DiNozzo's spine, and his eyes shot open as shock and sorrow converged upon him. After staring at the photo, he turned to Levi, anger in his eyes.

 

"Asshole," he growled. "Tali's dead. My daughter is DEAD."

 

Unnerved, Levi said softly, "look again."

 

"I know who she is--"

 

"Look. Again," Levi said. DiNozzo took the communicator and examined the photo. The girl could be Tali, but...she wasn't. Her eyes, her smile, her chin, all reminiscent of his daughter but different enough to confirm he was looking at a different girl. So why was Levi showing him her picture? Was she a long-lost daughter?

 

DiNozzo started to give the communicator back to Levi but caught himself. He took another close look at the girl in the picture, then looked at Levi, then back at the picture.

 

A million things seemed to go through DiNozzo's mind almost instantaneously, all of them pointing back at the daughter who he, until now, presumed to be dead.

 

"Mr. DiNozzo. The young girl in the picture is my daughter," Levi said. "Her name is Caitlin."

 

"Wait--what, who?"

 

Levi put a hand on DiNozzo's shoulder. "Her mother is Tali."

 

DiNozzo fell back into his seat in shock and stayed silent for a while longer, until the truck was near Vanderbilt University.

 

"Tali's dead," DiNozzo said softly. "They told me she was."

 

"Whomever told you that was given false information," Levi replied. "Tali wasn't there at the bombing. Mossad spirited her away through a series of safe houses, and finally, back to Israel."

 

"And nobody thought to tell me," DiNozzo growled.

 

"We could not, and if you think you will understand why. We expose you, and there were many people who would not hesitate to use her to bring you into the open."

 

Knowing Levi was right, DiNozzo cursed anyway. "Tali...you fathered her child. That means she grew up...where in hell is she?"

 

Levi hung his head, and DiNozzo saw a flash of pain in the younger man's eyes. "Upon arriving in Israel in 2023, she was told her father was on a long mission. She was raised by Mossad--"

 

"'Raised by Mossad.'"

 

"Like her mother."

 

Ziva. Another knife to DiNozzo's gut. "Mossad made sure she followed in her mother's footsteps. No matter that her mother was dead. No matter I--"

 

"Ziva David had sufficient financial holdings and investments to provide for Tali. Mossad is many things, Mr. DiNozzo, but heartless is not one of them. We raised her, and yes, trained her to be Mossad. She was...has been an excellent officer."

 

"Was? What aren't you telling me?"

 

"I met her on a mission. We fell in love. We resolved to do our jobs without our relationship getting in the way, and we did, until she became pregnant. And, refused an abortion. She took time off, gave birth to Caitlin, raised her for the first six months before returning to active duty."

 

"What happened to my daughter?"

 

"She disappeared three years ago during a mission in the Balkans. We do not know if she is alive or dead, and believe me, we have looked. You must understand, the Balkan War has made things difficult to do anything."

 

DiNozzo looked out his window and saw many more Metro Nashville police cars on the street -- West End Avenue -- along with Tennessee National Guardsmen and some people in suits he swore were federal agents.

 

"Where is my granddaughter? Did you leave her behind while you go on her own missions? And why is she named Caitlin?"

 

Levi looked at DiNozzo hard. "I am a father, not just Mossad. I have raised Caitlin on my own, going on missions only when necessary. Such as the one to find you. She is in a safe location, in Israel. As to her name, it was Tali's idea. Tali had been told about a brave woman whose life was taken far too soon by her long-dead uncle. She told me she could not learn what her mother thought about that, but she herself thought it an appropriate tribute, one that her father would surely appreciate."

 

DiNozzo smiled. It had been too long since he had thought about Kate, or anyone else from his previous life with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, without feeling like the devil had shoved a knife in his gut.

 

The E-500 pulled off West End Avenue into a strip mall near the university. While the Mossad men watched, DiNozzo's beard and mustache were shaved off, his long hair cut and dyed brown; he took one look in the mirror and swore he was 20 years younger.

 

That would prove to be the easy part.

 

DiNozzo had kept himself in remarkable shape for his age, despite the artificial hip that badgered him. However, he would be taxed severely by the subsequent long walk from the strip mall to the center of campus. He managed to make it past the university's football stadium to the medical center where his hip was about to give out (he was very grateful for the wheelchair that Dagan pilfered from the emergency room).

 

As Dagan wheeled him along, they saw an increased police presence -- not just campus security, but dozens of men and women whom he pegged to be undercover cops or feds. "I hope they have more important things to worry about than a stolen wheelchair," DiNozzo quipped.

 

"They do indeed," Levi said, nodding towards the faint shouting DiNozzo suddenly noticed. The four men made their way towards the source of the noise: hundreds of students had taken over the Commons area. As they approached the Magnolia Lawn, the shouts became more comprehensible:

 

"LET OUR PEOPLE GO"

 

"NO TO RUSSIA! NO TO RUSSIA!"

 

"ALL PEOPLE HAVE RIGHTS"

 

"WE DON'T NEED

TO BE REFORMED

WE NEED OUR

FREEDOM

BACK "

 

The students were orderly, and campus security (and the undercover cops/agents) seemed content to monitor them. DiNozzo and his Mossad acquaintances surreptitiously moved past the protestors, heading towards their destination. DiNozzo thought that they were pushing their luck, or they had unseen friends nearby...

 

...or they were about to be made.

 

On Edgehill Avenue, near 18th Avenue South, the foursome was stopped by an undercover agent, who produced his FBI badge.

 

Without his glasses, DiNozzo had difficulty reading the man's identification, but he didn't need to. The agent showed the ID to Levi, who nodded to Dagan and Lemuel; the agent then showed the ID to DiNozzo, who took another look at the badge.

 

**FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION**

**United States of America**

**Philadelphia, Pa.**

 

"You ever get confused?" he told the agent. "You know how many FBIs there are in this part of the world, now?"

 

"Tell me about it," he said, turning to look at Levi. "Coast is clear. They're ready for you."

 

"We're going right around the corner," Levi said to DiNozzo, who saw something familiar about the young undercover agent. He told Dagan to stop and turn around, and the agent walked back towards him.

 

"CIA?"

 

"Philly version, sir. Is that what you wanted to ask me?"

 

DiNozzo took a long look at the young man. "You look like someone I knew...but I can't put my finger on it."

 

"My name is Ronald Sacks Jr.," he said. "Good luck in there."

 

 _Sacks_. DiNozzo hadn't heard that name in decades, and thought it to be one hell of a coincidence. Then he remembered what an old friend said about coincidences, and found himself in front of Vanderbilt's First Amendment Center.

 

DiNozzo was wheeled up the building's handicap-accessible ramp through the front doors. The only people in the building were students and campus security personnel who seemed to know Levi; DiNozzo was wheeled into what looked like an old-style broadcast studio. There were two leather-bound chairs in front of a small hand-held camera propped up on a desk.

 

"This is the end game," Levi told him. "The reason you are here. You have a story to tell."

 

DiNozzo got up from his wheelchair, the pain in his hip nearly gone, and settled into one of the plush leather chairs. "Who's going to interview me?"

 

"No one. You'll just tell the story of how an NCIS investigation led to the dissolution of the United States," Levi replied.

 

"That's all?" DiNozzo remembered the sequence of events as clearly now as when he lived through them.

 

In 2020, NCIS Director Leroy Jethro Gibbs called DiNozzo at his apartment in Paris, where he was raising Tali. Gibbs asked a favor DiNozzo couldn't turn down: check up on the Undersecretary of the Navy and his involvement with Russian interests.

 

David Woods proved to be shifty; DiNozzo found just enough on the man to render him suspicious of something, just not direct involvement with the Russian government.

 

Several months later, DiNozzo's friend and former teammate -- Timothy McGee, now the Special Agent in Charge of the Major Case Response Team in Washington -- asked his help. NCIS needed another set of eyes in France; Woods was up to something in Marseille, and neither McGee nor Gibbs trusted the agent in charge of the local field office.

 

DiNozzo uncovered much more than he expected: Woods had met with Russian interests who were disenchanted with the current U.S. President and desirous of a change in the White House. Woods promised he knew people who could make that happen.

 

The contents of a laptop copied by DiNozzo onto a thumb drive divulged something even bigger: Woods could be connected to militias and extremists who were known to advocate for the violent overthrow of the federal government. DiNozzo got the information to NCIS, just before the Secretary of the Navy died in a plane crash.

 

Woods took over as SecNav, and Gibbs ordered an investigation into the plane crash that was all but forgotten in a series of deaths of prominent politicians, culminating with the poisoning of the President himself right before the major party conventions. As the Vice-President was sworn in as the new President, militia groups began attacks all over the nation. Chaos quickly overtook the country, quelled only through martial law.

 

DiNozzo returned to America out of obligation to his country and to NCIS, working with his former team. The economic crash that December was the beginning of the end for the old United States; by September 2021 six people were claiming to be the President, while secession movements were gaining ground in the states of Washington, Arizona, Michigan and Florida.

 

Woods by then was Secretary of Defense, supporting rogue generals and admirals who went against the wishes of the White House and Pentagon. NCIS found leads suggesting that Woods was coordinating efforts by American interests to destabilize their own government and military. It took several more months to connect the dots, but evidence was finally compiled that named Woods as the lead conspirator.

 

The piece that tied everything together was DiNozzo's secret taping of a meeting Woods had with his co-conspirators in February 2022. He took that tape to Gibbs, who packed it up with the rest of the evidence to present to the President.

 

Gibbs never made it, as his car exploded in flames outside the Navy Yard. The new director -- appointed by Woods -- ordered a halt to the investigation. DiNozzo, McGee and his team, and the Office of Special Projects ignored the order; days later, DiNozzo received an email hinting at a threat to the lives of he, his family, his coworkers and those he knew and loved.

 

DiNozzo was helpless to prevent their deaths.

 

In the end, only he and Tali were left. After Tali's presumed death, DiNozzo could barely function and was placed deep undercover by friendly elements within the FBI and Mossad.

 

Washington was destroyed by 'domestic terrorists' days later, leading to the formal split of the U.S. DiNozzo changed his identity every so often, always looking over his shoulder.

 

"And now you're asking me to recount it all over again," DiNozzo said to Levi, who sat in the other chair. "Why? What good is it going to do?"

 

"There's one more thing I need to show you, Mr. DiNozzo," Levi said. He pulled up a series of documents on his communicator, changed the font size to one that DiNozzo could easily read, and handed the communicator to the older man. DiNozzo read through the Mossad files: Woods, who had gone from SecDef to Congressman to Speaker of the House to President, had his prints on nearly every dirty activity on the continent.

 

"Woods has ordered the assassinations of prominent political, military and civilian personnel in every other North American country," Levi explained. "He ordered his military to build the mobile nuclear launch sites in the Ozarks and Virginia and central Florida. He ordered the assassination of the Scottish prime minister and the sinking of the luxury liner in the Atlantic."

 

DiNozzo swore. "What good is mine telling my story going to do?"

 

"How does it feel, to be the only thing between peace and total destruction?" Levi asked him. "Right now, despite what is going on behind the scenes, the world is at peace. But that will not last very long. The other American countries are, soon, going to take up arms against the RUSA. The RUSA will do the same, and we will be at war."

 

"Sounds like that's going to happen no matter what I do or don't do."

 

"There is one thing Woods is afraid of, Mr. DiNozzo. Losing public support...he rose to power through a disinformation campaign playing on the fears of Christian voters. He remains in power, but his America is no longer the free, safe country he promised. His power base is built on intimidation, bullying and lies. He is frightened of losing his base."

 

"If he loses his base...the whole thing falls apart."

 

"And that is where you come in. You are well-known, Mr. DiNozzo, by Woods's people who would kill you to protect their secrets, and by the underground who see you as an inspiration--"

 

"Me? How?"

 

"You came back and fought. You stayed and fought."

 

"I quit after Tali...after I thought she died."

 

"You're here, now, and I don't believe you came all this way to quit," Levi said. "When you tell your story to this country, and the world, that will spark a revolution we hope will dethrone the tyrant and lead to a reunification of the United States."

 

"You're asking a lot."

 

"Yes. But if we do nothing, nothing will be done." Levi looked past the camera to the production studio. With a nod from the producers, Levi turned to DiNozzo. "Do not worry about how we get your message out. Just tell your story, and let the people do the rest."

 

"Tell my story...right," DiNozzo said.

 

A minute later, video and audio channels across the RUSA were hijacked. Viewers saw DiNozzo's face, and as he spoke, a second revolution kicked into gear.

 

**End**


End file.
